One of our recent posts took an interesting tangent: physical hard drive destruction. First, [wolf] wanted to use a 20ga shotgun shell on his hard drive. [brk] suggests an electromagnet applied to the drive while it’s still spinning. Everyone thought thermite might be interesting… Finally, [wolf] noted this commercial auto destruction drive that floods itself with an acid mist. I’ll suggest a few ideas and let you guys take it from there.
I’d suggest pneumatic injection of two part epoxy into the drive mechanism. Remove the top of the casing using the diy clean room method, add a port for the epoxy and use a cheap CO2 bike injector to force the liquid into the drive on demand.
So, got a better idea? Let’s hear it.
all these methods sound amazingly inventive and useless. unfortunately for the 13 year olds who came up with the ideas, the DEA/ feds who would be interested in dismantling and reviewing you hard drives will get around most of these methods.
I am a big fan of hydrogen. I would have a compressed hydrogen canister inside the pc case, with a tube distribution to the interior of each hdd. Each tube would have a flash arrestor, as well as an electrical spark ignition at the midsection of each hdd. – Probably should use 5 inlets per hdd, just to be thorough. Flip a switch- bye bye bye. Given that a hydrogen torch of this type will melt a 3 inch wide hole straight through a charcoal briquette as well as same through 1/2″ plate steel in a matter of 3 seconds, it would be highly effective. In short, you would be left with a melting heap of liquified hdd. Unrecoverable, unrecognizable, etc. Yes, the hdd would be junk, probably the whole pc/ firebox, but, your police record an innocence would remain intact. Probably good to put a compressed nitrogen tank inside as well, to cool things off, after the melting process is all done, say after 20 seconds, self activated with timers and all that fun. All of the above should be located in a separate, in the wall, in a fireproof box/ safe, whose access is easily hidden by a picture frame, etc. Enjoy !
Unless the drive disks are completely destroyed (i.e. ground to dust, melted to liquid state, or dissolved to no more than 20% original thickness), there are ways of recovering data from them. Though not always 100% effective.
They best way I can see of destroying data effectively on HDDs would be to have a setup that could quickly write over the entire drive capacity repeatedly, while having programing to tell it that all data previously on the drive is available space.
The absolute most effective way I see of destroying hard drive data is to switch to solid state drives. These can be easily destroyed in a grinder or by placing in a furnace. You could even manually dismantle them and just bash the chips with a hammer till they’re dust.
Not quite as complicated to destroy as the old school drives. :)
Sorry about the double post.
About Dookiestick’s comments.
They actually sell fireproof hdd cases now that are connectable to your pc by usb cable. Might be a good option for your device.
Feasible way:
If you’re just wanting an automated data security option, then set aside a “secure” drive (separate from your “main” HDD to stop your system performance taking too much of a hit), and use a whole drive encryption with a ridiculously long encryption key. It’s actually easier than most people think to come up with ways to give yourself password reminders that mean nothing to anyone else.
Depends on how paranoid you are really. Normal good encryption solutions will do to deter the average data thief.
For secure data destruction, if the drive is working, stick it in a computer running a zero-fill program over it in an infinite loop, then forget about it for a day.
For drives that aren’t working: electromagnetic scrambling on exposed platters will do something similar.
Or for those who want an extreme/impossible/comedy solution:
Home-made railgun ;) lol
throw it into wet concrete watch them try and dig it out for 3 hours only to find they have destroyed it with the jackhammer it took to get to it
or
set the pladders with a few propane tanks set up a fire on top and poor some lighter fluid on it and a line leading to it lite it and run like hell
Good discussion. The concrete thing made me laugh the most I think.
What happens to a drive if…
1) You hook AC up to it directly?
Effectiveness?
How would you hook it up?
2) You wrap wire around it to (sort of) turn it into an AC electromagnet? If this would work…
What guage wire and how many wraps?
AC hookup configuration needed?
Effectiveness?
If either of those would be potentially effective enough, it could make for very simple, quick, and practical means.
3) For encrypted volumes… I would think that if you destroyed enough, or even only some, of the data on an encrypted volume, then the key would become useless, yes?
If true, then I would think that drilling a couple holes, or any otehr super simple method for partial destruction of data integrity should suffice.
install windows……….
Im surprised I have not seen this option yet.
1. Take the drive and cover it with a thin layer of plastic wrap.
2. Spool copper wire around the drive.
3. Connect each end of copper wire to a switch that is connected to an outlet or large capacitor.
4. When you flip the switch you create a large electromagnet which in turn kills the drive.
Should work like a charm, and not so dangerous.
PCB etching acid of any kind injected into the case in not going to do diddly. Along with many metal eating acids it will do nothing but make a wet mess. We must remember (those of us that have used these chemicals.). That the disks are coated. With what I am not sure.
When a DIY PCB is made. A Sharpie Marker (Black).
Will prevent or protect the copper from exposure to and from the effects of the chemicals. In short term anyway. I can’t define “Short term”.
But it is longer the 15 minutes.
So take into account. A thin black markers layer
stops the acid. I would bet the thin layer on the disks even though not black. Will most likely stop the corrosion. The disk layer is most likely a poly resin of sorts. And Most of the “Acid” Methods above. Are nothing more then
suggetions from someone that knows noting about what they suggested. The acids EAT metal. Nothing else.
If you want to use the diamond dust injection method. Wire the HD motor with some extra +- current leads directly to the motor. At correct voltage.
This way the HD spinning will not be controlled by any software. Make sure to mount the HD
with the MOTOR on top. So the Dust wount bind or get in an are where the extra dust stops the spin.
This way the extra dust will fall into an open space out of the way if needed.
A battery in the case that is always charging should be the power supply. Rig a bin or funnel above the HD with the top of the HD being a NON electrostaic thin film. Have the small bin sealed at to with the funnel hole bing sealed with a thin film. The bin needs to be mounted in a tilt back position. A SPRING loaded system needs to pull the bin forward making the funnel hole bottom when activated.
Cock the bin back and insert a stop pin. The pin will keep the sping from pulling the bin forward.
Sort of like a Rat trap. A second pin should be added. The trigger pin in inserteed in a way where if the case is opened. The pin releases the bin. The second pin is a temp pin. And is inserted while the case is opened. And needs to be able to be removed via a hole in the case.
So you put pin 2 to hold the bin while you are installing the divice. Load bin and close the case. Insert the trigger pin throug a hole in the now closed case. A flat flush head on pin 1 will keep it from being inserted too far. Also it will make sure the pin in pulled when the case is opened.
Pin 2 can be reinserted if the case needs to be open by your self.
When the trap is sprung. The bin is pulled forward. 1 or 2 razor blades or sharp pins the Slice both the bin and HD open. The dust pors in. And the HD start spinng at full speed via battery power . Just hide the bin above the HD. Make it look like a cooling device.
Also rig a cellphone or pager Vibrater motor.
In a clearly visable concise location away from the HD. Where it makes noise. So when the trap is spun.
No focus is made on the HD spinng and grinding.
Who ever opens the case will be distracted and confused by the vibrator. The HD will not even be noticed until too late.
OR so In theory I have concived this method.
Please feel free to shoot me down, correct me or add.
Selvol
One last note. Explosives, if you thought the DATA on your drive would get you some time in prison.
Explosives will send you away for 20 years or more. The GOV. Has zero tollerence for illegal use of explosive devices. Now add an Fbi Agent
having a HD do any degree of an explosion while in
police hands.
My friend. See ya later. 25- life for that.
Attempted Murder. Assault on a police officer.
Booby trapping w explosives. Call it what you want.
The Gov will call it a class 1 Agg Felony. Right up there w/ The OK city explosion.
DOn’t even mater is a Lady finger fire carcker was the bomb. Leave explosion/bullets out.
Or you are F()**
I’ve installed several Emergency Data Destruction Systems for clients in which the hard drive sits inside a small safe, and when the safe is opened incorrectly (or the panic button is used) the hard drive is destroyed using a small cast thermite brick. It’s easy to use, safe (as long as you’re not in a gas station etc), fast, and totally destroys all data beyond recovery.
Just magnetron it. Nothing works better than good old concentrated magnetism to wipe out electronic data.
Place one magnetron above the Hard Drive and one next to the memory and you’re set. Note: data from memory can be recovered also so you need to cover that as well as the HDD.
I set a subwoofer just a smidgen too close to one of my computers once and can attest to the fact that it will completely render your comupter unusable after a sizable magnetic washing.
HybridBlue’s and Cherebrum’s ideas seem very interesting to me.
(I had some classes with a guy that got direct access to the drive heads and motor via software and forced the drive to spin at full speed while slamming the read/write head onto the disk. Funny thing is it would totally screw up the drive…he said one drive actually got so hot it caught fire.)
(Hex edit a hard disk parking utility to make it ram the heads into the side of the drive repeatedly.)
Any ideas to transform these into a windows based little emergency software?